Dofollow or Nofollow Link Checker
You submitted your startup somewhere and got listed. Is the link actually dofollow — and is the page it sits on even indexable? Paste the page and your domain to find out in a couple of seconds.
What this tool actually checks
Most free backlink tools answer the question “how many links do I have?”. That is rarely the question a founder has. After submitting to a directory, a newsletter, or a roundup post, the question is narrower and much more useful: is this specific link worth anything? Three things decide that, and this checker looks at all three on the page you give it.
First, the rel attribute. A link with no rel restriction is a dofollow link and can pass ranking signals. A link carrying nofollow, ugc, or sponsored is flagged for search engines as something not to count in the usual way. The tool shows the raw rel value next to a plain-English verdict, plus the anchor text, because anchor text is half of what a link communicates.
Second, whether the hosting page is noindex. This is the check almost nobody runs, and it is the one that quietly wastes the most effort. A page can carry a perfectly clean dofollow link and still be worthless to you because the page itself is excluded from the index by a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag response header. A link on a page that is never indexed passes nothing to anyone.
Third, whether the page is blocked in that host’s robots.txt. If crawlers are told not to fetch the URL, they never see the link on it in the first place. Between them, those two checks separate a real backlink from a listing that looks live but is invisible to search engines.
And if there is no link to your domain at all, the tool says so plainly. That is a genuine answer — a lot of directories accept a submission, show you a confirmation, and never actually publish a link.
How to read the result
A dofollow link on an indexable, crawlable page is the outcome you want: it is a real editorial vote. A nofollow link on a high-traffic page is still worth having — it sends referral visitors, and being mentioned somewhere credible has value beyond SEO — it just should not be counted as link equity in your plan. A dofollow link on a noindex page is the case to walk away from: it costs you the same effort as a good link and returns nothing. For the full background on how these attributes work and which ones are worth chasing, read our guide to dofollow vs nofollow backlinks for startups.
Where to get links worth checking
Once you can tell a good link from a decorative one, the next problem is finding places that give out the good kind. Start with our list of the best startup directories and the free directories worth submitting to, then work through how to get backlinks for a new website. Run each one through this checker after you are listed — you will find that a surprising number of “dofollow directories” are not.
Launchory is on the other side of that line by design. Submit your startup, embed the badge from our badge generator on your own site, and your listing gets a dofollow link on an indexable page — then point this tool at it and confirm for yourself. You can also browse the directory or see the rest of our free founder tools.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a backlink is dofollow or nofollow?
Paste the page that should be linking to you plus your own domain. The tool fetches that page, finds every link pointing at your domain, and reports the rel attribute on each one — dofollow, nofollow, ugc, or sponsored — along with the anchor text used.
What is the difference between dofollow, nofollow, ugc, and sponsored?
A link with no rel restriction is a dofollow link and can pass ranking signals. rel="nofollow" tells search engines not to pass them. rel="ugc" marks user-generated content such as comments and forum posts, and rel="sponsored" marks paid or affiliate placements. Google treats all three as hints, and in practice none of them are counted the way a plain dofollow link is.
Why does the tool tell me whether the page is noindex?
Because a dofollow link on a page that search engines never keep in their index passes nothing. Plenty of directories publish listings on pages that carry a noindex meta tag or are blocked in robots.txt — the link looks perfect in the HTML and is worth nothing. This is the check most backlink tools skip.
Why does it say no link was found when I can see one on the page?
The checker reads the raw HTML a crawler sees. If the link is injected by JavaScript after the page loads, sits behind a redirect or a link-shortening script, or lives on a different URL than the one you pasted, it will not appear here — and search engines often will not count it either.
Is this tool free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no account, and no limit beyond a short rate limit to keep the outbound fetching polite. It runs on public pages only.
Does Launchory give dofollow backlinks?
Yes. Every listing that embeds the Launchory badge on its own site and verifies it gets a dofollow link on an indexable listing page, and premium listings get one instantly. You can point this checker at your own Launchory listing to confirm it.